Lab members

I began my academic career at Washtenaw Community College then attended the University of Michigan. After an internship in Finland and a stint as a medical writer, I enrolled in a PhD program at Wake Forest School of Medicine. I did post-doctoral research at the University of Michigan, Dept. of Cardiovascular Medicine using mouse models of disease, primarily examining how aging impacts atherosclerosis. I joined the Department of Pathology, Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology at UAB Heersink School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in 2022.

I am interested in aging and age-related disease. 99% of murine models of disease use young/juvenile animals, but the vast majority of diseases occur in old age in people. Biological systems change considerably with age. For that reason, I have focused on examining age-related mechanisms of disease in old murine models. My focus is mainly on vascular and immune mechanisms (T cells) of atherosclerosis and neurodegeneration. In the lab, we use molecular biology approaches including flow cytometry, microscopy, and single-cell RNAseq. I am a fan of technology, especially cutting-edge research technology, so we’ve been using spectral flow cytometry, Split Pool Ligation-based Transcriptome sequencing (SPLiT-seq), optical tissue clearing with light-sheet microscopy, and novel analysis pipelines for these techniques.

In my free time, I like to spend time with my family, play with my kids (and expose them to late ’90s and early ’00s music), and go running.

danieltyrrell@uabmc.edu | (205) 975-0088 | twitter | Scholars Page

Md. Akkas Ali, MS – PhD Student

Mr. Ali earned both his Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Master of Science (MS) degrees in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Sylhet, Bangladesh in 2011 and 2013, respectively. He is currently in the Graduate Biomedical Science (GBS) program in the Biochemistry and Structural Biology theme at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and joined Dr. Tyrrell’s laboratory in April, 2023. His primary academic and research interests are focused on Cancer Immunology and Neuro-Oncology, specifically in relation to Glioblastoma. Mr. Ali has a strong interest in immunology, specifically in T lymphocytes. From 2018, Mr. Ali has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology at SUST in Sylhet, Bangladesh and has an extensive teaching, publication, and presentation record.

mali3@uab.edu | Personal Website | Github

Mallikarjun Patil, PhD – Scientist I

Patil earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees in India and his PhD at Augusta University in Georgia in 2013. After his PhD he moved to the University of Utah as a postdoctoral fellow and worked on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. In 2019 Patil moved to UAB where he worked on mechanisms of cardiac fibrosis. Patil has published several impactful papers during his career in journals like Diabetes, JACC Basic to Translational Science, and Circulation Research. Patil joined the Tyrrell lab in 2024 to work on projects to understand disease mechanisms of age-related changes in mitochondria and T cells in atherosclerosis.

Md Hasanul Banna Siam, MS – PhD Student

Siam earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Microbiology from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. He worked at BRF, icddrb, and served as a lecturer in Microbiology at BRAC University before starting his PhD at UAB with a prestigious AMC21 scholarship from UAB Immunology Institute. Siam has joined the Tyrrell laboratory in 2024 and is currently studying CD8+ T cells in the context of aging and cardiovascular disease. Prior to joining the Tyrrell Lab, Siam published several first-authored papers and has particularly developed a keen interest in bioinformatics methods to study complex biological mechanisms.

Personal Website

Harry Tidwell – Undergraduate Volunteer

Harry is a senior at UAB pursuing a BS in Biology with a Minor in Chemistry and he is on the accelerated MS degree track. He started as an undergraduate research volunteer in the Spring of 2023 and is focused on learning microscopy techniques and microsurgery. Harry is currently working advanced imaging of large cleared tissues and image segmentation and analysis. Harry aims to pursue higher education in medicine or research after graduating from UAB.